flurry of events in swing states. president obama began in concord, new hampshire. at this hour, he's in florida right now heading to ohio next and then ending the day in colorado. republican mitt rom any kicked off his day at an event in des moines, iowa. after that it was on to cleveland, ohio. white house correspondent brianna keeler is in hollywood, florida. where the president should any moment now arrive. he's a little late. it's about 20 minutes past the hour or the moment that people, a huge crowd were expecting to hear from him. what's the holdup? >> reporter: well, you know, he's got a lot of places to go, 20 minutes behind not really surprising. i think that's been happening a lot the last few days, fredericka. but yeah, we'll be keeping an eye out when he speaks so if you

want to stop in and see what he's saying, for the last few days leading up to election day, he's concentrating quite a bit of his time in ohio, and also in wisconsin and iowa that midwestern fire wall. and as his campaign sees it, if he does sure ohio, they feel that he will be able to keep the presidency out of the hands of mitt romney. of course florida is also very important. when you look at the polls righ right now -- we're getting ready for the introduction of barack obama. this is a college graduate, she was someone who suffer eed kidn failure and was able to stay on her parents policy after college. it's very popular for a plan

that's not overall popular. you look at the polls here in florida, and they're very close, neck and neck. some polls actually have mitt romney ahead, but overall, it looks like a very tight race. so president obama concentrating some of his effort there, but a lot of it there in the midwestern states, particularly in ohio. >> so the president is not taking florida for granted, even though he won florida four years ago, depending on which poll you're looking at, there's a 3%, 4% margin of error between he and mitt romney. what is the last ditch effort that he can give to floridians now. what is it that he could say to those who they be thinking about going republican or who may be undecided there in florida? >> reporter: and that's really what he's addressing, fredericka, he's sort of saying to people in these closing hours

and days, you may be frustrated with the pace of change, but we're heading in the right direction, that's really his message and he's telling people, you know that i am fighting for you, he's emphasizing his economic policies, saying we're trending in the right direction, don't jump ship and also exercising that mitt romney is not someone who is known. he's been saying to voters u you know that i say what i mean. mitt romney has been positioning himself as the candidate of real change. barack obama's answer to that is that he's been saying mitt romney is a good salesman, but he's repackaging all of these old ideas and selling them as change. don't be fooled by that. that's really his argument as he tries to convince voters in what is going to be a very close race. president obama is -- obviously

very close races in battleground states, although the obama campaign would rather be where they are. when you look at the national polls, it is neck and neck. president obama trying to rally voters and get these enthusiastic so that they will get out to vote on election day. >> brianna keeler in hollywood, california. and we'll go back to hollywood, florida, when the president starts to speak. all right, meantime republican mitt romney is conceding nothing to the president. earlier he spoke to voters in the democratic stronghold of cleveland, ohio. no republican candidate has ever won the white house without winning ohio. and romney expects to continue that streak. >> if you believe america should

be on a better course or if you're tired of being tired, i ask you to vote for real change. paul ryan and i will bring real change to america from day one. when i'm elected the economy and american jobs will still be stagnant, but i won't waste any time complaining about my predecessor. >> this was the second of four events romney had scheduled for today. next up for the republican candidate is pennsylvania. so america has 50 states, but it's the key battleground state where is the race just might be decided come tuesday. right now cnn estimates that nine states shown here on the make or break states. president obama or 34mitt romne to wing the who is. there's to the all important state of ohio with 18 electoral votes. virginia is one of those key

battleground states as well. it's a state that favored barack obama back in 2008, but now the state's electoral votes are very much up for grabs. joining us from bluemont, virginia. virginia jones, what is on the minds of people there in virginia other than that pumpkin smashing you have been seeing all day at great country farms? >> that's right, fredericka, we have been here watching people do this. they call it pumpkin chunking, it's a place to come to bring your jack-o-lantern when you're through with it. virginia went for barack obama back in 2008. the margin of victory was a little more than eight points, versus a little more than six points for the entire state. we have been talking to people here all day, not all of them

have been louden county, a pretty good cross section. listen to what 2w0 of them had to say. >> i'll be supporting president obama, i believe he stands for women's rights, for children's rights for everyone's rights more than people who represent the top 1%. >> i was -- had high hopes for obama, but he just hasn't fulfilled them so i think it's time for a change and romney is that kind of manager, organizer that can do the job. >> reporter: and i'll tell you one thing i asked both of those people, if they really think this is as close here in virginia as the polls say and were they willing to venture a guess. they really weren't, they said it was going to be a squeaker on tuesday night. >> for those who are undecided,

who are not so sure, not so enthusiastic about it. what's keeping them from going to the polls on tuesday? >> reporter: well, it's interesting that you asked that, we did talk to one young couple who didn't want to speak on camera who said they were undecided, they spoke about taxes and education. i asked when they were going to decide. the mother said we'll decide when we walk in the booth the husband said a little bit earlier. it's hard to know if those people who are still undecided are in fact likely voters. many of the issues they brought up were of course the economy. also women's issues, women's rightses. one of those people who was an obama supporter was concerned about energy policies. he was concerned about any -- one thing that everyone agreed on is that they're sick of all these ads, being in a swing state, a swing county, they have

been inundated with carlls and letters and mailings. one woman was crying because she was sick of hearing all these campaign ads. >> and a programming note, be sure to join our anderson cooper a and wolf blitzers as they both take a final look at the election, that's "countdown to election day." and we mentioned president obama is stumping there in florida for the last time two days before election day. you see him right there in the state, we'll take a short break and we'll hear what president had to say from hollywood, florida. we still run into problems. namely, other humans. which is why, at liberty mutual insurance, auto policies come with new car replacement and accident forgiveness if you qualify.

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the president is stumping for the last time in florida. >> the markets do best when everybody has a chance to succeed, when everybody is getting a good education, when every worker is getting new skills, when we are investing in medical research for new technologies and where everyone can count on affordable quality health care. when we protect medicare and social security so we can expect dignity and respect in requirement. and that there's some rules in place to protect our kids from toxic dumping, to protect congress assumers from

unscrupulous credit card lenders. there's some things we don't want washington to do. the politicians in washington most of whom are male to control health care decisions that women can make for themselves. now, for eight years, we had a president who shares these beliefs, his name was bill clinton. and you know, his economic plan, when he first came into office, he asked the wealthiest americans to pay a little bit more so we could reduce our deficit and still invest in the skills and ideas of our people. and you know what? at the time, the republicans in congress and a senate candidate by the name of mitt romney, i don't want you to boo, i want you to vote.

i want you to vote. but a republican candidate by the name of mitt romney said, bill clinton's plans would hurt the economy and kill jobs. turns out his math was just as bad then as it is now. because by the end of president clinton's second term, america created 23 million new jobs and incomes were up and poverty was down and our deficit had turned into a surplus. so florida, we know that our ideas work. we also know that their ideas don't. because we tried their ideas too. we trieded giving big tax cuts to the wealthiest americans. we tried giving insurance companies and oil companies and wall street free reign to do whatever they wanted and what did we get? falling interest rates and the

slowest growth in half a century and a financial crisis that we have been cleaning up after ever since. here's your choice, you've got ideas that we tried that didn't work and you have got ideas that we t we tried that did work. so you would think it would be a very clear choice. but governor romney is a very clever salesman, so in this campaign he's f ee's tried as h he can to repackage these old ideas that didn't work and present them as new ideas and offering them up as change. but here's the thing, florida, we know what change looks like. what governor romney's offering ain't it. giving more power back to the biggest banks, that's not change. another $5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy, that's not change. refusing to answer questions about the details in your

policies until after the election, that's definitely not change. politicians have been doing that a long time. ruling out compromise by pledging to rubber stamp a tea party agenda in congress, not change. changing the facts when they're inconvenient to your campaign, that certainly is not change. you know -- and here's the thing, when you make this choice, you know, part of what you're choosing is who do you trust? you know, because you don't know what crisis the next president's going to confront. you don't know what challenge we may have to meet that was unexpected. so part of what you're -- part of what you're focused on is -- how does somebody operate? and florida, after four years as

president, you know me by now. you may not agree, you may not agree with every decision i have made, you know, michelle doesn't agree with every decision i make. you may be frustrated sometimes that the pace of change, i'm frustrated by the pace of change sometimes. but here's the thing, you know i say what i mean and i mean what i say. i said i would end the war in iraq. i ended it. i said i would pass health care reform and i passed it. i said i would repeal don't ask, don't tell. we repealed it. i said we would make sure the auto industry came back strong, it's come back strong. you know what i believe, you know where i stand and you know that no matter what happens, i'll fight for you and your family every single day as hard as i know how.

>> four more years! four more years! four more years! four more years! >> so when you're trying to compare the two candidates agendas and we're talking about change, you know i know what real change looks like. because i fought for it. because i brought it. because i have got the scars to prove it. because i have got gray hair doing it. and after all we have been through together, to bring about change, we can't give up on it now. because there's more change to do.

change is a country where every american has a shot at a good education. you know, government can't do it alone, parents you've got to parent, students, you've got to study. but don't tell me that hiring more teachers won't help this economy grow, it will. don't tell me that students who can't afford college should just borrow more money from their parents. >> that's barack obama there in hollywood, florida, stumping there just two days before el t election day. we'll continue to monitor his remarks there before he moves on to the next battleground state. we're going to take you to new york, hot soup warming the hearts of so many recovering from superstorm sandy, all in the backyard of this guy right here. [ male announcer ] with 160 more miles per tank,

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a lot of runners who travel to new york city to run in that new york city marathon this morning, instead headed to staten island and other areas hit hard by that superstorm sandy. they delivered relief supplies

and helped victims clean out their flooded homes and though the storm's that struck -- intent on running the race they had trained for months to finish. they participated in unofficial alternative marathon that was organized on facebook. celebrity chef and cookbook author was born in queens and his culinary career has included stops across new york city. so when superstorm sandy left millions without a decent meal, despirito did what he does best. he cooked up some soup and headed to the worst hit neighborhoods and started passing it out. rocko you have made your rounds, queens, manhattan, borooklyn, ad

now staten island. what's it like to hand out so many meals to so many in need? >> it's wonderful to have a skill that's actually useful in a storm situation like this. i cook and people are hungry, it's a perfect match. >> how do you even go about making so much soup? >> it's not easy because there's a shortage of fuel, needless to say, you need fuel to get chicken, supplies, containers, just a few of the cars required to get it to the neighborhoods, the fuel becomes a problem. >> tell me what you're seeing. >> i see houses with broken doors, windows, piles of debris in front of them. five, six, eight feet high, containers full of garbage, a lifetime of personal belongings, piled up in front of their homes, clearly damaged by the

water. >> and what's within the reaction when they see you bringing them these containers of soup. describe to me what they have been saying to you, what they have been feeling. >> i'm very proud to say there's a lot of our community in action, there's people on the ground helping out. i think what they're struggling with is how to get themselves and the food and supplies to the people who need it. and their reactions are, is that hot? i'll take it. it's getting cold out, so it's something to warm their hands and warm their bodies. >> at what point did you say i'm going to try and help out folks? did it start as just in your neighborhood and it blossomed into more or what? >> the whole idea of feeding hungry people is not new to chefs we all participate in the hunger challenges that many americans face in some way or

another and my food truck is established to feed hungry people and educate children about healthy eating, it was designed for that and now it's really needed. but though the truck is out of commission because of sandy, my prius that has only used 5 gallons of gas since the storm. >> you're sharing about the latest deliveries you have been making and collecting donations as well. how can people help if they want to. >> i met someone yesterday who raised several thousand dollars and was able to buy scarves and jackets for very cold people. i thought i have been doing this out of my pocket up until now and i set up a pay-pal for people who want to donate. if they want to help, the

information is on twitter and facebook as well. but everyone's support and just passing information around is also very helpful. >> you must have an incredible team, looking at your tweets there. my heart goes out to all those affected by hurricane sandy. >> a family walking by me right now it looks like they've got all of their belongings in a supermarket basket. but the people are generally upbeat and hopeful. which is surprising. >> rocko despirito thank you for making deliveries of that warm your heart soup. the weekend just about over, we head back to work tomorrow, the president says there's 171,000 reasons to be excited about the economy. mitt romney, well, he disagrees. we'll get both sides next. from currency trading for a few

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that could affect the outcome. hillary rosen is in washington. good to see you hillary. and republican cnn contributor, ray hanselan. great to have you as well. as we head into election day, just a couple of days away, how do you feel about the october surprise, whether it was the superstorm, the debate. >> you've got to put the storm right in there and i agree with folks who talk about stopping the momentum that mitt romney had gained. but some people saw something about barack obama that some people might have forgotten is that he does well at leadership and he can work with both sides.

>> we talk about the undecideds, does a moment like that kind of help solidify or cement the views of some of those undecideds in your view, hillary? >> well, i think it does for this reason. as a practical matter, despite the perception that the polls have been extremely volatile over the last couple of months, the truth is they have been more volatile for mitt romney than they have for the president. he has been in the battleground states, a couple of points above 50 in some of the battle ground states. slow and steady is where this is. i do think that over the last several weeks, the democratic campaign has been playing to its base, focusing on turnout, trying to drive some of those big issues that matter the most to women, to latinos, the gays and lesbians and focusing their -- i think what people really want to know though, for an undecided voter is, is this

guy going to reach across the aisle, is everything he did before a fluke or can he keep doing it? and i think that's what some of the storm leadership showed. >> what do you think, more volatile for romney and this superstorm, did it kind of change the scope, change the landscape for romney? >> i think hillary's reading was very astute. i think when you look at this pattern of this race, you see romney inches closer and closer to the president and issues some disruption or shock. the 40% was really rough on romney but after the first debate he came back. there were many people who were writing off these candidacy. what happened this month is that approaching the president's numbers, he kept doing that, except in some national polls he started to issue some to state just neck and neck. it's very complicated, it's very hard to tell, because there is

more than one narrative about the storm. it's certainly true that chris christie has warm words for president obama, what appears to be a decisive leadership in the midst of a really tremendous storm. >> do you think he's won the hearts and minds across the country. >> you have states that were very likely to go very favorable for barack obama it might lead to a favorable impression. there's one narrative of decisive leadership and there's another narrative that the response wasn't sufficiently stro strong. >> it doesn't seem that those things have been placed at the feet of the mayors and the governors. >> the one thing about president obama is the decisive actor. i agree with hillary's reading that this appears to have stopped mitt romney's momentum. the question is this going to be the deciding factor.

and what happened with employment leading up to the 18 months leading up to the congressional midterm elections, the employment situation is a little bit stronger. so i think that those fundamentals that matter most. >> it sounds like it could go both ways when you talk about that jobs report, romney trying to use it to his advantage, look at the employmeunemployment rat ticked up and. >> you know, this whole jobs number has been so i think confusing for voters because of course when president obama was elected, the number was very different than when the president took office. depending on when you count all those job losses, depends on whether you think things have gotten dramatically better or just somewhat better. i think that that's going to be

sort of an ongoing thing. but a key thing that the obama campaign did, a decision they made early on, i think is what's going to win the election for the president. >> what's that? >> he very astutely said, things are not going as well as you want them to go or as well as i want them to go. but we're going in the right direction, this election is not a referendum on what is happening, it's a choice between two people. and you have to decide, voters, who you trust to be on your side. and i think that kind of fundamental question is what's hurt mitt romney in some of the things. the 47% comment, his taxes issue, paying so much less than the average american, i think that that fundamental issue, this is a choice not just a referendum on where the economy is. >> do you agree with that, that that could be the strong narrative here? >> i actually think that mitt

romney did a tremendous amount in the last month of his presidential campaign which is why i still think he has a good chance to win. and if you look at romney's campaign, his was weaker because he allowed the obama campaign to define him particularly in the summer. and he did a poor job of defining himself. so if he loses, i think it will be primarily because of that. i think that we saw a kind of alternate history of what the campaign might have looked out throughout had he done a better job of defining himself early on. >> or had not gotten stuck by that awful republican primary. >>. ohio may indeed be ground zero for the battleground states in these last days before the election, i'll tell you what each of the candidates is doing with votes we'll go live in cincinnati after the break. huh?

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hopefully you haven't had enough of presidential politics because it is full force in ohio in a very big way. mitt romney was in cleveland this afternoon and president obama has a rally in cincinnati, 8:00 tonight, paul ryan was in mansfield around lunchtime and vice president biden is making three stops today in the buckeye state. so while a recent poll shows that president obama maintains an edge in ohio, 51% to romney's 45%, neither campaign is easing up. our jessica yellin arrived in

ohio for tonight's rally. the past few days have been grueling and it can be arguing that that's the case for all of those who are campaigning. but what is it that the president really wants to find some assurance in ohio, especially since there are very few undecideds in ohio? >> reporter: this is the so-called fire wall for the obama campaign. ohio has one of the so-called electoral state they feel if the president holds it and can keep mitt romney from winning here, there are other ways for mitt romney to become the next president. so president obama doing everything he can in the last few days, he's visiting ohio twice, it's the only state he's going through twice, to keep that, what they call a fire wall, away from mitt romney if they can. but president obama having the edge in all the current polling, all the polling over time, but

still within the margin of error. and he emphasizes here as everywhere, fredericka, that he doesn't want anybody to see governor romney as the candidate of change, it's part of the message governor romney has been selling. president obama insisting he's that guy still and he tries to sell that to the crowds here and in the battleground states he's visiting, colorado, florida, new hampshire hampshire, me's ending his campaign tomorrow night in iowa. >> president clinton has been campaigning in some states. the president not trying to be o overly confident about clinching that state again. >> president clinton has been helping the president in some of the battleground states. this morning we went to a joint rally with president clinton and obama. president clinton is sort of his

validate for, saying again, that same thing that nobody could clean this economy up in the last four years, but then he's also going minnesota, that's one of those states that the democrats traditionally hold as a blue state. the clintons there are saying take nothing for granted, there's a comit of shobit of sh do. okay, so more on that backup plan, part of that defense, we're talking about former president bill clinton, all right, well, he knows what it's like to lead. can he help his colleague, president barack obama clinch more support? we'll bring you more on that live.

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in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪

it's a big what if. but what if romney and biden were paired in the white house? blame the electoral system. josh levs is here to explain. >> this is a great clans to stop and look at how our elections system in this country actually works. it's kind of amazing. this is a scenario to stop and hear about. what would happen if there was an electoral tie? >> it could happen. and it would throw the race into confusion and controversy. what if president barack obama and milt romney tie in the electoral college with 269 votes

each? there's an amendment for that. here's how it works, in january, the now house of representatives would choose the president, with each state getting one vote. republicans will almost surely have the majority in that vote and choose romney. but not paul ryan, the vice president gets decided by the senate, if that's still in democratic control, biden would almost surely win. so thanks to the electoral system, we could have a romney-biden white house. but there's also another possibility. let's go back to that electoral college tie. these are the votes electors are expected to take based on the votes in their states. but they don't all legally have to. some states don't have laws to punish elector who is go their own way. if there is a tie, expect swayable electors who become very, very possible to some and a source of anger to others. we're not saying it's definitely

go to be happen, but the fact that there is this electorate system, that congress would suddenly have to go through that process. >> if there were a tie. >> they would trigger this process. >> and they would have to continue to look the way it does if the senate looked that way. >> those are likely. but, yeah, i mean look, what we know is those are the laws that are on the books and it's another reminder why a lot of people want to update this system from the electoral college. which should make a lot of sense from the start centurieies ago. it made sense for states to say we're going to choose some people to go to a meeting and oversee picking the president who will be over all of us. >> you think things are tense now? oh, my goodness. >> it's a headache. >> and all kinds of folks are making predictions based on interesting things. a football game, an nfl game.

what's this one all about. >> there's one for everything, this one is out of the nfl, but there's also one out of major league baseball. and obviously mitt romney doesn't have a lot of time for football today. he got the score cha he wanted, the redskins lost to the panthers. since 1940s, the team's final game before the election has predicted which party will win the white house every time but once. when the redskins lose the challenge r wins. republicans will be looking out for mitt romney. major league baseball put out an announcement a little while ago and said that ten times, 67% chance that democrat barack obama will win the election because a national league team won the world series. obviously people are having pure

fun with this. but for people who are really into sports figures, this is how it could play out. >> lots of front spin, involving sports, involving everything. >> fortunately in the next few days it will be worked out and we'll know who the president is and all the predictions will be in the past. >> nonetheless, no matter what, you need to keep it right here election night, our coverage is very comprehensive throughout the evening. you don't want to go anywhere else except right here. but you can begin that this evening because later on this evening, anderson cooper and wolf blitzer are going to break it all down for you, a close look at the candidates, "countdown to election day" tonight at 8:00 eastern.

stick with us throughout ele election night as well.

now an update on superstorm sandy. most new york city public

schools will be back in session on monday. this will be the first time the schools have opened since sandy hit last week. about 80 schools will remain closed due to severe storm damage. those schools will be moved to temporary locations. and the conditions for those without power in storm zones could be getting worse over the next few days. the temperature is expected to drop below freezing tonight and tomorrow morning. many residents without power are staying in shelters, trying to stay warm. the red cross is moving 80,000 blankets into the region ahead of colder weather. back to politics now, mitt romney and paul ryan are expected to speak at separate events in just a few minutes. we'll bring those to you as they happen. urn come between us and what we love. so if you're one of them people who gets heartburn and then treats day after day... block the acid with prilosec otc and don't get heartburn in the first place!

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it's the top of the hour here in the cnn newsroom. i'm fredericka whitfield. two days before the election, a marathon has turned into a sprint. mitt romney is in a swing state that leads democratic, but one that romney believes he can win. president barack obama was in florida earlier, it's the biggest prize of all of the swing states. next, he'll be heading to cincinnati, oh